


Servant

by Anniecat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, WandaVision (TV)
Genre: Cancer, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Multi, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29525964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anniecat/pseuds/Anniecat
Summary: For better or worse, Tyler Hayward has given his life to SWORD.Hayward seems a little too hammy, moustache twirling villainous to me, so I wanted to add a little more depth.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Servant

On November 16th, 2001, Tyler Hayward had been working for the FBI for 6 months when his supervisor had called him into his office to meet Maria Rambeau. His supervisor didn’t look up from his computer, and continued to tap out computations when he introduced them. “Hayward, this is Captain-”

“Director, sir.”

“Director Rambeau, she’s with some other agency. She’s looking for a tech guy.” His supervisor hit the spacebar forcefully, and Tyler realized he was playing a game, not doing any work.

Director Rambeau extended a hand. “Good to meet you, Hayward. Would you like to get some coffee?”

Director Rambeau took him to a coffee shop in Alexandria, where she sat down opposite him at a circular table. “So,” she began. “Mr. Pendleton tells me you’re a promising engineer.” Tyler nervously sipped his coffee.

“Honestly, I don’t think he knows who I am. I think he just threw out a random name.” Rambeau laughed.

“So you didn’t graduate summa cum laude from CalPoly with a double major in electrical engineering and computer science? Invented a minicomputer that can fit in your pocket?” 

“I did-”

“I think that constitutes ‘promising’, don’t you?” Rambeau smiled at him, which was so unlike  _ any _ of the government goons he had met.

“I guess.”

“So, how’d you end up at the FBI?” Rambeau asked. Tyler shrugged.

“I always wanted to work at SI since I was a kid, but then Stark died, and that Stane guy took over, and they closed the intern program. Couldn’t get an in as a new grad. Then the FBI contacted me, said they wanted a guy like me in Tech.”

“Do you like working there?”

“It’s fine. What agency did you say you were from?” Rambeau shifted her eyes around the mostly empty coffee shop. 

“It’s new. It’s called SWORD.” Tyler racked his brain for the name.

“That like SHIELD?” SHIELD was a boring group of bureaucrats, who routinely got in the way of the FBI. Tyler had never interacted with any of them, but they were often the boogeymen of FBI agents.

“We’re a little more advanced than them. SWORD - Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division - is an international organization that monitors and tracks, for lack of better words, superheroes.” Tyler’s heart sank.

“I appreciate your interest in my work, Director Rambeau, but I-” Tyler began to stand up, but Rambeau caught his arm.

“You don’t believe in superheroes?” Director Rambeau raised an eyebrow, and Tyler  _ really  _ didn’t want to be mean, since he liked this woman, but-

“No, ma’am. Not really,” Tyler admitted. Rambeau only smirked at him.

“If you’d allow me to take you to another location, Tyler, I think I have something that might change your mind,” Director Rambeau said, and for some reason, Tyler trusted her. “And you can quit it with all this ‘ma’am’ talk. It’s Maria.” 

Maria brought Tyler to a pitiful warehouse off of I-395, where a meager array of cars sat in the parking lot. She led Tyler through heavy metal doors into the most baffling facility Tyler had ever laid eyes on.

A smattering of desks older than Tyler were scattered across the open floor plan. On top of some of them sat 10 year old, bulky computers. On top of others was advanced technology, more complex than anything at the FBI or CalPoly’s labs. In the center of the room was a giant monitor set up, with data processing so fast that it made Tyler dizzy. Of course, Maria was heading there. 

She sat down in one of the office chairs, and tapped at the keyboard. She pointed to the third monitor on the second row. 

“See that? That’s Bruce Banner.” On the screen was a profile for a mild mannered looking scientist, with curly black hair. Tyler nodded. “And this is  _ also  _ Bruce Banner.” The monitor flipped to a video of a giant green monster, throwing cars and jumping on buildings. 

“Jesus.”

“Dr. Banner hit himself with a lethal amount of gamma rays, which turned him into that. An unkillable titan. But-” She switched the feed. “He’s laying low now. Hanging out in India, keeping himself calm.” It was a stealthily taken image, of the same mild mannered scientist in the first image, giving a young girl a shot in a dingy doctor’s office. 

“I’ve heard of this man before. How come I didn’t see any of this?” Tyler asked.

“Because we made sure you didn’t. If it got out what Bruce Banner is, he could never live in peace. He would be dangerous. Our organization makes sure that doesn’t happen.” Tyler scanned the rest of the monitors. Several more of these “sentient weapons” were displayed, and Tyler couldn’t begin to comprehend all of them.

“So… you need a tech guy?” 

“I do. I need someone to design and implement new technologies needed to continue our mission,” Maria explained. 

“I’ll do it,” Tyler accepted, almost surprised at his own words. The truth was, after September 11th, Tyler was afraid of the world around him. If there were people out there, special people, who could help, he wanted to be on their side. 

“Glad to have you on board.” Maria grinned and shook Tyler’s hand. Tyler grinned back.

The first few years that Tyler worked for SWORD was uneventful. He had a fancy new title now, Director of Technology and Development, and he was able to create things far more interesting than he ever would have at the FBI, or even SI for that matter. The first thing he implemented was a new monitoring system that allowed SWORD agents to cross reference their data with other agencies, to create a more comprehensive profile on these people. He also began work on a containment system, which would hold more unstable subjects until the Processing department could help them.

Despite the relative inactivity within their organization, Tyler was devoted to the job. He would stay into the late hours of the night, holed up in his office, putting out new updates, finalizing designs, and whatever he could occupy himself with until Maria gently knocked on his office door to politely make him go home.

The problem with going home was that there wasn’t anything waiting for him there. His passions were entirely tied to engineering and computer science. He didn’t care to have a hobby, and there certainly wasn’t anyone who had caught his eye since he had met Maria.

Ever since she had plucked him from the bowels of the FBI, Tyler Hayward was completely in love with Maria Rambeau. He never acted on anything, never attempted to initiate a relationship, but his devotion to the job was undeniably tied to his devotion to Maria. There was something about her magnetism, her charm, the way that she would light up whenever Tyler would show her what Tech and Dev was working on. Tyler’s sisyphean quest was to become the most important person to Maria.

Said quest was sisyphean because, of course, Monica. Monica was introduced to Tyler when she was a teenager, uninterested in her mother’s work, and far more occupied in going into the Air Force, Maria’s previous occupation. She also was not a fan of Tyler. In Monica’s opinion, he was the reason she practically lived at the office. Monica was not oblivious to the rumors. Everyone joked that he was Maria’s “work husband”(a title he secretly held close to his heart), and Monica obviously didn’t care for the implications of that. When Maria suggested to Monica that Tyler should come over for dinner, or come with them to the movies, Monica refused. Tyler knew this hurt Maria. While he knew that a romance was never going to be in the cards for them, he knew that he was one of her closest friends.

Then, Tony Stark became Iron Man, Captain America was found in the ice, and Thor came down to Earth. Suddenly, SWORD was constantly busy, far more busy than Tyler had ever seen it. The HQ had grown from a dank warehouse to a fully functional agency, with an HR department and everything. He and Maria spent weeks in the office without going home, relying on takeout and their office couches. Monica wasn’t happy about that, but now she blamed the Avengers rather than Tyler. 

It was close to Monica’s graduation when she brought up Carol Danvers. “Mom, do you think that Aunt Carol will be able to make it to my graduation?” Monica asked, innocently. Monica was hanging out in Maria’s office, playing on Maria’s computer while Tyler and Maria discussed the Mandarin’s human experimentation.

Maria seemed off put by the question. “I don’t know, baby,” she frowned, and left the office. Monica continued to click the mouse. 

Later that night, Monica drove home and once again, Maria and Tyler were stuck in her office. At around 11 PM, Maria retrieved a bottle of scotch from her desk drawer and poured them each a finger. “I owe you an explanation for earlier.”

Tyler looked up from his laptop. “No, that’s okay, it’s personal-” 

Maria tilted her head. “Tyler, I see more of you than I do my own house. I think we’re well past that.” 

Tyler inhaled sharply, as Maria downed her glass. “Carol- Captain Danvers was the first.”

“The first what?” Maria raised an eyebrow. “Oh.”

Maria explained everything that happened, from the explosion, to the Kree, to Carol - Captain Marvel - taking off for the skies, leaving Maria and Monica behind. “I don’t think she’ll be back. The universe obviously has more problems than we do,” Maria said wistfully, pouring herself more scotch. There was something else, in the way that Maria spoke about Carol, a certain softness that Tyler was too familiar with, because it was the same softness he had for Maria. If there was no chance between him and Maria before, it was firmly cemented by her lost love among the stars. This didn’t change anything between them. His love for Maria might have been unrequited, but it was unconditional. 

However, he did develop an irrational hatred of Carol Danvers. It wasn’t jealousy; he knew what that felt like. It was more of a resentment, for leaving behind people she cared about in order to save people she didn’t. Maria assured him that she did it out of responsibility, that some higher power gave her the abilities she had for a reason, but Tyler didn’t buy it. People with superpowers seemed to think that it made them better than everyone else; that they were above judgement, that non-superpowered people just didn’t  _ get _ it. Tyler thought that was a load of horseshit. 

Monica was away at the Air Force academy when the Ultron incident happened. SWORD didn’t even have time to respond to it. But the morning after Sokovia fell from the sky, Maria came into Tyler’s office gravely.

“We have to do more, Tyler. World’s changing.” So Tyler bulked up Tech and Dev, hiring on twice the amount of engineers and inventors, and Maria doesn’t bat an eye when they start conceiving of more and more weapons to use against these Sentient Weapons. He stopped thinking of them as people; they certainly stopped thinking of themselves as human.

It’s SWORD that designed the floating prison that they put Captain America’s merry band of traitors on. Maximoff was particularly tricky to trap, but Tyler personally designed her restraints. He refused to let anyone else die because of some vigilantes with god complexes. 

Monica left the Air Force shortly after the Sokovia Accords, and Maria welcomed her into SWORD with open arms. Her time in the Air Force had softened her, or gave her perspective, and she no longer seemed to despise Tyler with every fiber of her being. She respectfully called him Hayward, and he accepted her affectionately, like a little sister. He could never hate someone that Maria treasured so dearly. 

Monica wasn’t particularly intelligent, not like Hayward was, but she was a great leader. If she didn’t know something, she surrounded herself with people who did. Her phone contacts were full of experts of niche fields Hayward had never even dreamt of. When Maria tilted her head towards Monica as she directed a group of scientists, Hayward knew what was coming. “She’s a good leader, huh?”

Hayward understood what she meant. “She’s great.”

It wasn’t until they were getting dinner after a laboratory success that Hayward learned why.

“Tyler, I’m sick,” Maria confessed over a plate of Pollo Alla Romana, and Hayward nearly choked.

“What?” He said in disbelief.

“Stage 3 breast cancer, I’m scheduled for a double mastectomy next month,” Maria told him. Hayward didn’t finish his meal, and for the first time in nearly 20 years, he was relieved to go home. 

Maria took a leave of absence, as did Monica. Hayward insisted on helping out, but both Rambeaus emphatically refused. Maria told him that someone had to hold down the fort. Monica told him it was a family matter. 

Half of SWORD turned to dust around him on the day Maria had her surgery, and Tyler called her immediately. She answered the phone, sobbing. “I’m alright, but Monica…” Tyler didn’t need her to tell him twice. 

He moved in with Maria, as friends. On her good days, she would force him to take her to SWORD headquarters and she would try to fix the world.

She also created a contingency plan that Tyler thought was unnecessary.

“Maria, I’m just not sure this is a priority.”

“Tyler, are you telling me I am wasting my time on a fool’s errand?” 

The fool’s errand in question was the protocol in case those who were snapped ever came back. 

It was simple. Those who came back were to be grounded indefinitely.

And Monica Rambeau would become the Director of SWORD.

Tyler had balked at that. “Are you sure she’s ready?”

“She’ll have to be,” Maria asserted. 

Her cancer went into remission, and Tyler thanked whatever god was left to answer. They were able to design a new nanotech suit that would morph based on the threat it faced. It wasn’t dissimilar to the Black Panther’s suit, or Tony Stark’s most recent rendition of the Iron Man suit, but it wasn’t for flashy Avengers. It was for professionals, keepers of the peace. Not rock stars who toyed with lives for the fun of it.

Maria loved it. “Tyler, you know you could have been Tony Stark yourself. Why not?” Tyler obliged her, but they both knew why.

“Because I’m too busy being Tyler Hayward.”

Maria’s cancer came back, because of course it did, and she made Tyler the interim director. “Keep Monica’s seat warm, yeah?” is what she said to him, and it tore his heart apart. It felt like she was giving up.

Those last few days in the hospital, he spent by her side, diligently. He held her weak hand and mustered up the courage that he had been missing since he met her.

“Maria, I have to tell you something. I’m in lo-”

She pressed a finger to his lips. “Tyler, don’t say it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I know what you’re going to say. And you don’t need to. You’ve already told me how you feel.”

“I have?” 

“We don’t just communicate through words, Ty,” Maria said as her head lolled back. Tyler swallowed nervously. She rarely called him Ty, it really wasn’t his nickname, but it was a diminutive. Affectionate. 

“If she ever comes back, Tyler, make sure she knows how much I loved her,” were Maria’s last words, and Tyler wanted to put his hand through the wall. Monica was gone. Tyler was  _ there _ . Why waste her last request, her last confession, on someone who might never return, when there was someone _ sitting right next to her _ , who had given her his entire life?

There was no use arguing with a dead woman. Tyler kissed her hand and left.


End file.
